Tag Archives: English Program

Ok, so there was only one wedding. But there was an engagement party, which is sort of like the foreshadowing of a wedding. Besides, using “An engagement party, a wedding and a graduation” for a title just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

All these events (and others besides) account for the long silence in my posts. For the most part I’ve been extremely busy getting the semester rapped up at our English Center. It was a shorter semester than normal but because of that, it was much more intensive. I think everything went well though. The students all seemed to have a good time and the teachers really seemed to connect with them. The students and the teachers went out almost every night after class to do something. Maybe to get something to eat. Maybe to a coffee shop. Maybe just to walk the streets of Amman. It was a great time of fellowship and sharing.

And then, as we rapped things up, we had our graduation ceremony. It was great fun. Our teachers and students all dressed up. We watched a video full of memories of things that had happened this semester. We handed out the certificates of competition for each course and congratulated the students on their hard work. Finally, we had kanafi, which is a delicious sticky and sweet desert that is famous here in Amman.

The engagement party was for a couple from the local church that I attend here. The place where they held the event was far north of Amman, out into the countryside and in a grape vineyard. It was a beautiful location. All the guests gathered earlier in the evening and waited for the newly engaged couple to make their appearance. It was well after dark before they arrived but when they did they were greeted with applause and singing and fireworks. After the initial greetings, things calmed down somewhat and everyone took a seat. Then, one at a time, guest after guest stood to offer words of encouragement and blessings for the couple we where here to celebrate. After this, we were served a delicious dinner of chicken and rice. Finally, after everyone was finished eating, they cranked up the music and began to dance. The tradition here is to lift the bride-and-groom-to-be on chairs in the middle of the crowd (kind of like crowd surfing) and then many of the men start a circle dance around the outside of the crowd. All and all it was a lot of fun and I had a blast.

Also this week there was the wedding I mentioned earlier. Aside from it being in Arabic, it really wasn’t any different from most weddings that I have been to in the States. I’m friends with the bride and her side of the family and am very happy for her and her new husband. They are a wonderful couple. I pray the Lord richly blesses their marriage.

So, yeah, between these big events and a hundred other smaller ones, it’s been a busy week and it will only slow down a little before I am head back to the States in just a few days. I can’t wait to see everyone.

Registration went really well thanks in large part to all of the marvelous people we had helping us. We currently have 71 students enrolled and I am expecting maybe 20 or 30 more before we finally close registration.

There is still a lot that needs to be done before classes start on Sunday but our team is working diligently to make it all happen. There will also be a group coming in from the States later today to help teach for the first two weeks of class. I’m expecting it to be a fun and fast paced semester.

Please be praying for our students, so that any seed that is scattered will find good soil and produce abundant fruit. Thanks!

We have been in between semesters for a while now but finally our summer program is about to start. There is still a lot to get done between now and registration. Judging from the number of people who have called to ask about our classes, I’m expecting us to easily be filled to capacity. This past spring semester we were also completely full and even after we had enrolled 130 students (our absolute max) we still had people asking to be put on a waiting list in case anyone dropped out and a space became available. I’m expecting things to be about the same this semester.

While it looks as though we will have plenty of students, we may be lacking a few teachers. All of the families on our team that live in Jordan are in the States right now for one reason or another. So I’m left to hold down the fort. We do have a group coming from the States for two weeks who will be teaching and there are two couples and a single guy who are also going to be helping. Still, during our last two weeks of class, we will be very thin and some of us might have to teach two classes.

Please be in prayer that registration will run smoothly, that the Lord will bring in all the students that He desires to be a part of our program and that we will have enough teachers to be able to really connect with our students and make a difference in their lives.